Acer laptop power supply

Ok looks like my sprog has finally managed to break her laptop.... Acer travelmate 4401.
The power supply plug/socket is now a very slack fit and no amount of jiggling will get it to even flicker the power light on the front of the laptop.... Power is showing on the power pack.
Now is this a common problem and a cheap fix, or is it looking like a new motherboard.... Of course this is just out of the 12 months warranty and cheap skate here never wastes money on extended ones......
Going to ring Co we got it from tomorrow to see if they have any idea...
But thought ask here 1st as you are a knowledgeable lot..

Replacing the power socket on a laptop mobo is, of itself, a fairly trivial exercise.

The hard part is getting the laptop open and pulling the board, then putting it all back together so it works again afterwards.

Something worthwhile, however, is to plug a multi-meter into the output of the PSU, and compare the figures with those printed on it... you might be lucky, and the *slackness* is unrelated.

Cheers will give that a go.

Well metered the p/s and that is OK...
Just emailed a couple of local places for estimates and its looking like a